Milwood Magnet School students enrolled in Big Brothers Big Sisters program receive books from holiday drive

KALAMAZOO, MI — Kalamazoo-area children enrolled in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program on Monday began receiving books gathered during a holiday book drive held by Barnes & Noble Booksellers.

“It was really encouraging to see how excited the kids got when picking out their books and it was great to see the project come to fruition,” Cindy Schrauben, communications manager for Big Brothers, Big Sisters, a Community of Caring, said of Monday's event at Milwood Magnet School.

Michael Rice, superintendent of Kalamazoo Public Schools, and Deb Buchholtz, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters, joined 25 of the program’s mentors from Eaton Corporation as the books were given to the Milwood Littles.

Rice, who became a Big Brother himself when he was a sophomore in college, said, “Of the 13,000 kids that have been involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters, many have involved moms or involved dads or both, but many have no strong role models. Big Brothers Big Sisters fills that need.”

Eaton was the first area company to join the Bigs in Business program and its employees have been mentoring Milwood Magnet students through the program since 2005, said Amy Kuchta, director of mentoring programs at Big Brothers Big Sisters, a Community of Caring. Every two weeks, students are transported to Eaton’s Galesburg site to meet with their mentors.

“We hope that talking about the books with their mentors sparks the children’s interest,” Buchholtz said.

More than 2,600 books were purchased by Barnes & Noble customers, she said.

More than 1,300 children in all counties served by Big Brothers Big Sisters, A Community of Caring, including Allegan, Barry, Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren, will be presented with the books, according to a press release.